June 26, 2014

Odd bedfellows - Anti-agreement republicans and unionists

Danny McBrearty, former commanding officer of the IRA’s Derry Brigade and former comrade of McGuinness said:

"Nothing surprises me any more about Martin McGuinness, so if he does give the Queen of England a guided a tour around the jail where republicans fought and died for their principles, I would not be shocked… Authentic republicans should take no part in or welcome this visit to the Crumlin Road jail. Instead they should be outside protesting against the presence of a British Queen in a prison where their comrades suffered so much. As for McGuinness - he is only shaking hands and guiding around his true boss."

"Does Martin [McGuinness] forget that the Queen decorated the Parachute Regiment and that they remain decorated? Can you sleep at night having given orders to young Irish men and women to attack the Queen´s forces when many of these men, women and teenagers were then murdered? I hope you are happy with your new found friends Martin. For they are the employers of the men who murdered our loved ones. Your actions, in my opinion, are traitorous."

Responding to the first meeting between Martin McGuinness and the Queen, Jim Allister said:

"The choreography of bringing the Irish President to the same event where McGuinness is expected to meet The Queen is patent politicking and pandering to Sinn Fein, designed to dilute the singularity of British sovereignty in Northern Ireland.

This is a visit by the Sovereign of this nation and should not be tempered by a parallel visit from a foreign head of state. As for The Queen having to meet McGuinness, my sympathies are with her."

Monstrous that Govt would have Royals validate celebration of rebellion in Dublin in 2016. Not in my name!
— Jim Allister (@JimAllister) April 14, 2014

"The DUP and UUP have shown no regard for the suffering inflicted upon many individuals and families by the actions of the PSNI and instead have sought to keep themselves politically correct by lavishing praise on the very architect of the political strategy deployed to crush any PUL opposition to the status quo.”

"The PSNI and Security force agencies are currently waging a war of attrition against loyalist dissenters and those who oppose the ‘process’. They attempt to criminalise political dissent, this strategy has been clear through the activities of the PSNI DULCET team.”

"While the titles of the police force and the legislation that force has access to may have changed over the years, there is little to differentiate between supposedly modern, reformed policing and that which took place under the RUC and the legislation available to that force in previous decades.Let’s not forget that two key demands of nationalists in the Six Counties for decades were for a totally unarmed police force and an end to all repressive legislation."

"It is also important to emphasise that I am not the only victim of malicious persecution and prosecution by the PSNI. There are other cases of injustice which are still ongoing and it’s very important that they are also publicly highlighted and supported. I would intend to assist in that."

"The extreme bail conditions which the court sought to impose upon me amounted to a form of collective punishment for my partner, children and wider family. They were also clearly designed to ‘criminalise’ and punish me for legitimate political activism.”

It's PSNI/IRA to loyalists and PSNI/RUC to republicans. Loyalist Jamie Bryson on the PSNI here:

"Under Matt Baggotts leadership the PSNI have become widely referred to in the Protestant community as the "PSNIRA". A sentiment that is not without foundation."

"The NYC ST Patrick’s Day parade committee have exercised the utmost in their contempt of human rights by inviting the blatantly sectarian, corrupt and abusive PSNI/RUC to march in its parade next Monday. The PSNI are merely the RUC re-named, and are in no way “reformed” and have been cited for multiple human rights violations by the CAJ, UN Committee on Human Rights, and other international human rights watchdog organizations."

"The PSNI is the most accountable police service in the European Union, more accountable than the Gardaí are. So they might like the idea of regional police service in Northern Ireland and the Gardaí still policing elsewhere in the island."

THE NEW IRISHMAN

A blog promoting a broader view of Irish history and identity. A blog examining Irish unionism and presenting a pro-Union stance that is positive and progressive.

"Unionists need to understand their own history. They need to understand the causes and consequences of that history. They need to understand the nature of their relationship with Dublin, London, republicanism/nationalism and with each other. They need to understand and explain the idealism which underpins their beliefs and they need to begin to “imagine and forge a future illuminated by the unfulfilled promises of our past”."

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